Free tapes and downloads no more for fans of the Grateful Dead, reports the Sacaramento Bee. The famous NoCal-based band, which has downshifted since the death of leader Jerry Garcia in 1995, used to make so much money touring that they were happy to let - even encourage - fans to tape shows live. Now that has all changed, in the era of digital downloads for pay.

Surviving members of the Grateful Dead, the psychedelic jam band that toured for three decades, have angered some of their biggest fans by asking a nonprofit Web site to halt - at least temporarily - the free downloading of concert recordings. Representatives for the band earlier this month directed the Internet Archive, a site that catalogues content on Web sites, to stop making recordings of the group's concerts available for download, band spokesman Dennis McNally said Wednesday.

Fans, who for decades have freely taped and traded the band's live performances, quickly initiated an online petition that argued the band shouldn't change the rules midway through the game. "The internet archive has been a resource that is important to all of us," the petition states. "Between the music, and interviews in the archive we are able to experience the Grateful Dead fully."

..McNally said...a compromise could be reached that allows some downloading of specific songs or shows. The Grateful Dead once set concert attendance records and generated millions of dollars in revenue from extensive tours. With concert tickets now removed as a source of revenue, sales of the band's music and other merchandise have become increasingly important in an age where music is distributed digitally instead of on CDs, vinyl and cassette tapes.

And the arrival of Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes online music store, and other similar sites, means free downloads can be seen as competition, said Marc Schiller, chief executive of Electricartists, which helps musicians market themselves online. The band sells music on iTunes and exclusive shows through its Web site. "When the music was given away for free to trade, the band was making so much money touring that the music was not as valuable to them," Schiller said. "Apple iTunes has made digital downloads a business."

Makes sense. Pay per download is where online music is, now, after all. Deadhead diehards can still barter fuzzy-sounding tapes of live shows, or even unsanctioned peer-to-peer online exchanges, if they don't get busted.

I love jam bands a lot more than the next guy, and have a few Dead albums: when they were on, in studio and live, they were really on, even if they could be awfully boo-jwah in person. Plus, a few of Jerry's solo albums were great, especially the one simply titled "Garcia" (right), with "The Wheel," and "Sugaree." Not to mention his bluegrass gem with mandolinist David Grisman, "Old and In The Way," and Dead guitarist Bob Weir's, "Ace."

But how many different, live, warbling versions of the old Dead's "St. Stephen" or "Sugar Magnolia" do you really need, anyway? The whole Dead live-recording collection thing bleeds into fetishism after a certain (very early) point, and gets in the way of exploring new and different music.

Let the Dead be dead, and MoveOn, already.

TECHNORATI TAGS: GRATEFUL DEAD, APPLE ITUNES, JERRY GARCIA, BOB WEIR, OLD AND IN THE WAY

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 30, 2005 10:48 PM